Couple would gladly embrace aging together

Almost from the time they met, Bea and Steve Wolcott always thought they would grow old together. And after 27 years they’ve so far stayed true to that premise, including 17 years as husband and wife and parents to Steve Jr.

Bea is 49 years old now; Steve is 53. They still are a long way from old age, but the odds of them getting there together have grown a little slimmer in recent years. Sometimes that’s just the way life is.

Now it’s time to throw some support their way. We’ll all have a chance to do that on Thursday. And it may even help to say a prayer or two.

About 10 years ago, a few years after they moved from Temecula to Long Beach, Bea noticed that she was coughing more than usual and couldn’t understand why. Through the years, the hack didn’t go away and gradually worsened.

At first, doctors thought it might be allergies but Bea didn’t react to the medicines they gave her. Then they thought it might be acid reflex, but that was wrong, too.

Imagine for a minute what it would be like to have a persistent cough.

“Sometimes we went to restaurants and it was so bad that the people sitting around us asked to get up and move,” Bea said. Movies were out. It was embarrassing, and frustrating, to be in a crowd. And this was coming from a woman who once loved to entertain friends on weekends.

She eventually lost her job working at a supermarket in Temecula and it affected her whole lifestyle.

Two years ago, Bea finally was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. If you think that sounds deadly, expensive and life-altering, you’re right. She’s lost 80 percent of her lung capacity and walks around their Winchester home attached to a machine that pumps oxygen through a tube and into her nose. Call it a leash if you want, Bea doesn’t mind. It’s helping to keep her alive.

She takes an oxygen pack with her wherever she goes and instead of being annoyed, people often give her a sorrowful look now. Sometimes that feels just as bad, Bea said.

She’s been in the hospital three times in the last year. She can’t walk to the mailbox any more without feeling out of breath. Steve has given up his job to help take care of his wife full-time. They’ve given up virtually everything they once knew, including the weekend camping trips that they dearly loved.

The only way to beat this degenerative disease is to replace both her lungs by way of a transplant. Now every time the phone rings, her fingers are crossed, hoping it’s the University of Southern California Medical Center calling, telling her they have an organ donor that matches her height and weight. She’ll have two hours to get there, and another four to six hours to remove her lungs and get the new ones in place.

“I’m so anxious to get this done, but it’s also sad because I know somebody had to die in order for me to keep going,” she said.